Cork East Fine Gael TD and Minister of State at the Department of Justice, David Stanton welcomed the signing of Orders today by Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Simon Coveney, T.D., designating Maynooth, Co Kildare and Cobh Electoral Area to include Carrigtwohill and Glanmire, Co Cork as Rent Pressure Zones. These Orders will come into effect tomorrow, 30th of March 2017.

Rent pressure zones were first introduced last December across the four Dublin Local Authority areas and in Cork City. Further designations were made in parts of counties Cork, Meath, Kildare, Galway and Wicklow on the 26th of January.

Welcoming the extension made today, Minister Stanton commented:

“This designation of Cobh, Electoral Area in Co. Cork as a Rent Pressure Zones is a positive development, in an initiative which secures rent predictability in areas that need it the most. It will allow those renting in the affected areas to budget going forward and will provide them with certainty over their future rental expenditure.”

Minister Stanton also welcomed the publication of the Residential Tenancies Board expanded Rent Index Report which provides more information and insight into market behaviour in the rental sector. A new methodology means that data from the Residential Tenancies Board can now be used to calculate and monitor changes in average rents at the level of Local Electoral Areas.

Minister Stanton noted that the practical effect of designation of Rent Pressure Zones is that those renting homes affected, will now know the maximum amount of rent that they may need to pay over the next three years, which limits a rent increase to 4 per cent a year, or 12 per cent over the three years, giving certainty and fairness to both landlord and tenant.